M50B25 Turbo E30 build

[Andeep]

Hi guys,

I had originally planned on dropping a turbo m50 into my daily 323i E36, but always wanted an E30. So when a good one came up for the right price I snapped it up.

Gunni as GSTuning is sourcing the parts for me and also making the manifold. The future spec of the engine will be:

MLS headgasket
Bosch 60lb injectors
Split pulse twin scroll manifold
Borg warner S256 twin scroll turbo
60mm wastegate
Sachs pressure plate with 6-puk clutch
VEMS

I had previously sourced this 1991 E36 325i auto (non-vano M50 ftw!) for cheap so I could rob it of its engine:



Car had been stored in barn for ages and had all sort growing under the bonnet, but was only 91,000 miles and full BMW service history so was a steal for what I paid for it.

M50B25:







Nice and clean under the cam cover:



The paint has completely flaked off the cam cover as it is magnesium, so got to stripping the paint and sanding it:



Etch primered it and painted it with some 2 pack black:



Sourced this 316i E30 for a fairly decent price, needs some work done to it as has rust in usual places (jacking pads!).



Sourced an E36 325i gearbox:



Ended up with 2 E28 diffs as one of them was meant to be a 2.93, but the guy I got it off had got it wrong, so have ended up with 2 3.10 diffs:



The comedy 316i engine:





Got to removing it:





Will be selling bits off the 316i engine, PM me if you need parts:



Next threw in an E46 clubsport rack with DanThe spacers on the top:



Took apart an E34 steering UJ and combined it with the E30 UJ:



All bolted up with DanThe's splined steering shaft:



I have a E34 sump waiting to go onto my engine, so will sort that and am also waiting on poly engine mounts from rev-shift. Had to really go with poly as the downpipe is going to be running to close to the steering column and don't want it to foul on it!

So engine will be in within the next few days. Just waiting on Gunni at GSTuning to come down so he can mock up an E36 bottom mount turbo manifold so see if it fits, if not will probably go with a top mount. I would prefer a top mount anyway, but will see when Gunni comes down to check fitment.

[StefanAnghel]

Good luck fella,
Keep us update!

[randomspeedfreak]

keep us posted!

[craigieeb]

Nice1, good to see another M50 turbo project come together




P.m on route ;)

[Gunni]

Shiny exhaust manifold pics coming very shortly for this one.

[DanThe]

This will be interesting

[Andeep]

Car is being dropped off to Gunni on Tuesday so that he can work his magic and make my top mount manifold.

Shiny exhaust manifold pics coming very shortly for this one.

[Andeep]

Stuck the 5 series M50 front sump on:


Revshift 24v conversion poly mounts:

Needed these because I don't want the engine to move too much and foul on anything as I know clearances are going to be tight. Cabin noise should be fine still as its a smooth 6-cylinder and not a 4 pot bag of shite.

Getrag gearbox:


Mounts installed. The central stud goes into the slotted holes in the subframe closest to the chassis rails. Since the stud on the other end is eccentric, the mount can be rotated to centre the engine perfectly.


Nearly there:




And shes in:


I am using stock E36 gearbox rubbers (same as E30) for the moment until I get hold of some E21 ones. I rotated the engine mounts until the crank was perfectly centred between the chassis rails and each end of the mount was sitting flush with their mounting surfaces. Gearbox and engine mounts were then tightened fully and measurements checked again it its sitting perfect. The mounts left are right aren't aligned symmetrically with each other, but this is fine since the engine sits spot on.



Plenty of space for a turbo! And loads of room for downpipe.


Car is being trailered up to Gunni at GSTuning tonight and he will build the top mount manifold.

[e30-EVN]

awsome stuff. this will be a friggin beast when its done. 3rd and 4th gear power slides ftw!

good luck with the build

[mattrs]

Very

[Driftybolox]

Cool Hopefully doing the same soon. Keep us informed

[Andeep]

Car is still at GSTuning, so thought would go about rebuilding and freshening up the brakes. The brakes will probably be fine, but thought I would rebuild them as they are really old, and also they look really grubby!

I sourced some vented E30 325i front calipers and complete E30 325i rear trailing arms. I will be using these with yellowstuff pads for the time being, if I need bigger brakes will invest in some in the future.

The rears weren't too bad:



Fronts were a different story. Looked like someone had attempted to paint them yellow at some point in their lives (wire brushed the one on the right):



So I stripped the calipers, wire brushed them as much as I could:



Mixed up some Deox-C and left it for a day:



Bits came out well:



They then got another wire brush, degrease and good cleaning before I started painting them:



Baked them in an oven for around an hour, then got to tapping the holes again and cleaning off any paint on any of the contact surfaces:





Started to rebuild everything. Rebuild the calipers, greased and assembled everything.



All done!

[E30BeemerLad]

Good work, nice big nipples

[Andeep]

Got started on the rear trailing arms today. Stripped them down fully:



Set fire to the bushes:


Bushes came out so easily! Popped out very quickly:


Set about grinding down any rust:


All rust removed:




Ready for paint!:


Painted them with Por-15:




This stuff is expensive, but only used a little bit to do one arm!:


The Por-15 brushed on very very easily, wasn't running and didn't drip everywhere like most paints. Stuck onto the the metal very well and there is no brush strokes! Look like its been sprayed on. Very impressed with Por-15 so far.

[Andeep]

Did the other arm today.

Ground down:


Painted:


Need to do the other little bits like straighten and paint the backing plates, and a few other brackets and the rear trailing arms will be done. Will be doing both subframes as well, but they're on the car which is still at Gunni's.

[BATTS91]

hey lookin good bud lookin out for when you get your manifold from gunni his work looks the dogs danglers , for future refrence what brand ect is por 15 not familiar with it but looks to do a brill job thanks

[Andeep]

Its made my Frost http://www.por15.com/

Need to uprate my radiator, any ideas? Was thinking E36 M3?

[DanThe]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E36-M3-92 ... 632wt_1117

[Andeep]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E36-M3-92 ... 632wt_1117

Is the fitment of the rad good? Will it be sufficient for my application? What can I do about an oil cooler for my non vanos engine?

[DanThe]

I have an S50 rad and oil cooler on my track car, to use the oil cooler you will need the S50 oil filter housing too

[Andeep]

Would I be able to use an S50 oil filter housing on a non-vanos engine?

[DanThe]

Yep, bolts up no problem

[Andeep]

Awesome, will try and source one!

Would I be better off getting that aftermarket alloy S50 rad? Or would an OEM be sufficient?

[DanThe]

Well its about the same price as a new OEM rad, and the alloy rads usually have a thicker core

[Quaser]

Wow - nice project!

[Andeep]

Cheers, I think I have sourced an S50 oil cooler and filter housing. Whats the situation with the pipes on this? Can stock S50 ones be used?

[DanThe]

They can but you will have to fit the cooler forward of the radiator, in the standard position fixed to the radiator the pipes will foul the PAS pump

[Andeep]

Might as well just custom pipes made then. What fittings have you got on the back of the S50 cooler? Just wondering how to mount it as far back as I can without the pipes coming out of the back of it fouling anything

[Andeep]

Was just having a think. If I am going to have custom lines made, couldn't I just run a generic oil cooler and have custom lines made up to connect it to the S50 oil filter housing?

Something like this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UNIVERSAL-19- ... 2eb3769bf4

This way I can run a bigger oil cooler?

[DanThe]

There are lots of options, but do you really need a bigger cooler than the S50? Its big enough as it is TBH

The one in the link will be a smaller core

[Andeep]

Started sorting out the backing plates today. They were quite bent and a lot of paint peeling/surface rust, but the handbrake shoe mounting holes were good so i'm going to 'rescue' them.

Straightened out a bit and ground down all the rust:




Ground down the hubs:




When removing the bearings, the inner race often gets stuck to the hub. A tip for removing them is pile weld onto the inner race and eventually they will crack, allowing you to pull them off with no damage.



Chucked everything into some Deox-C solution:



Will paint them all up tomorrow, and that will be the rear trailing arms all done!

[Andeep]

Took the bits out of the Deox-C solution and ground down any remaining rust and scotch-brited them:


Masked up the hubs:


Ready for paint:


All done:




Will assemble the rear trailing arm tomorrow. Any ideas on how to install the bearings without screwing up the paint? Might be easier to install the bearings one the trailing arms are on the subframe on the car.

[Andeep]

Next thing to do was to install the bearings into the rear trailing arms. I didn't really want to put the arm onto the car and hammer the bearing in, wanted a bit more sophisticated solution lol, and also wanted to assemble the trailing arm off the car and just bolt it on.

So I cut 2 plates out of 4mm steel, one that was the exact same size as the outer race and one that was larger than the hole in the rear of the arm. I used a threaded bar and this snapped before the bearing could fully go on. Also the 4mm steel plates kept bending.



Fortunately I had an E36/E46 bush removal tool, so I used this and the various dies it comes with instead to push the bearing in:



Used like this, the bearing was pressed in flush with the outer side:


The 4mm steel plate I had previously made was then used to press the bearing in the remainder of the way:


Fully seated:


Circlip installed:


Next was to install the hub, used the tool like this:


You have to make sure that you press against the inner race and nothing else otherwise the inner race will pop out:


All done:


My minty mint assembled rear trailing arms:

[johnmaccow]

Very tidy job mate, very nice

[Andeep]

Just got this photo from DI Racing/Gunni: